Dell and Alienware

Dell — which includes every Alienware machine — calls the serial a Service Tag. It’s 7 alphanumeric characters, sometimes labeled ST or SVC on the sticker. That’s the value that goes in the inventory’s Serial field, and it’s what Dell support asks for.

The Express Service Code printed next to it is the same tag converted to digits, for phone menus. It is not a second serial and it does not go in the Serial field. Put it in the asset notes if you want it handy for a support call.

Read it from the OS

Windows (PowerShell):

Get-CimInstance Win32_BIOS | Select-Object SerialNumber
Get-CimInstance Win32_ComputerSystem | Select-Object Manufacturer, Model

SerialNumber is the Service Tag.

Linux (our Dell boxes that run Linux):

sudo dmidecode -s system-serial-number
sudo dmidecode -s system-product-name

FreeBSD: kenv smbios.system.serial.

Dell’s SupportAssist app on Windows shows it on its main screen, and so does Dell’s support site once you enter it.

Read it from firmware

Tap F2 at power-on for setup — the Service Tag is on the main page. F12 gets the one-time boot menu. See BIOS and boot menus .

Where the label is

The rack server

The PowerEdge R740xd has a pull-out tag on the front — slide it out and the Service Tag is printed on it, along with the Express Service Code and the NIC MAC addresses.

Better still, don’t touch the machine: its iDRAC service processor has a web UI whose dashboard shows the service tag, model, and express service code. That’s the correct way to identify a server that’s running someone’s job.

Firmware keys on the PowerEdge differ from the laptops: F2 System Setup, F11 Boot Manager, F10 Lifecycle Controller.

The GB10 boxes

The Dell Pro Max Micro with NVIDIA GB10 units run Ubuntu on aarch64. sudo dmidecode -s system-serial-number gives the Service Tag; if that comes back empty on the ARM firmware, use sudo dmidecode -t system for the full block, and fall back to the label on the underside.

Model field

Record what Dell calls it, with the generation: Alienware Aurora R9, Alienware X15, Precision 7540, PowerEdge R740xd, Dell Pro Max Micro (GB10). We own many Aurora desktops with different CPUs and GPUs — the model plus the Service Tag is what tells them apart, so get the R-number right and put the CPU/GPU in the asset notes.